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Every year or two, we see renewed calls for laws mandating a 30-hour workweek. The latest is by Harlan Green, editor of populareconomics.com. It’s time to put this issue to bed: laws mandating a shorter workweek hurt the very workers they intend to help. The idea that we need maximum-workweek laws to protect workers is a myth: capitalism has driven down worker hours even in the absence of such laws. Economist Robert Whaples notes that the average workweek has been decreasing since the 1830s. By 1938, when President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandating a 40-hour workweek,...

People who believe that capitalism only refers to large, powerful multinational corporations are missing some of the key elements of free markets. In a surprisingly influential article in the Guardian, Paul Mason argues that the system-wide changes occurring in the economy are early symptoms of “postcapitalism.” But the changes he describes—the open-source movement and a spread of information—show the world is more capitalist than ever. Continued at CapX: http://www.capx.co/the-information-economy-isnt-killing-capitalism-its-driving-it/

Written in collaboration with Matt Palumbo. The great economist Frédéric Bastiat would have turned 214 today. His contributions to liberty have been many, but while so many advocates of free markets focus on The Law, there is another book that represents his legacy even better: Economic Sophisms. This short work of essays epitomizes perhaps his most important contribution: using taut logic and compelling prose to bring the dry field of economics to hundreds of thousands of laymen. Bastiat did not, generally, clear new ground in the field of economics. He read Adam Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say and found little to...

Dating is perhaps the freest “market” in the United States today, and its lack of regulation can teach us powerful lessons about the flaws inherent in government regulation. Most people recognize the absurdity of trying to regulate romantic relationships. What many don’t realize is that this absurdity stems not from the nature of these relationships, but from the nature of state intervention. For the same reasons that regulating dating would be counter-productive, regulating many consumer choices is unwise. Subjective Value Makes Government Regulation Unjust When it comes to dating, we see a wide range of tastes and desires. Some people...

In Ferguson, Missouri, when police and national guard failed to protect businesses from rioting protestors, a private organization called Oath Keepers stepped up to fill the gap. The presence of Oath Keepers, keeping the peace where police officers failed, helps answer a larger question: how necessary are police? The heart of the state’s justification has always been that it can provide essential services that the market cannot, chief among them security. While admitting that police abuses were problematic, Miguel Guadalupe of the Huffington Post asserted that, “one thing is certain — [sic] a strong body of law enforcement, and one that...

Most defenders of the state assume that government services help the poor. And, sometimes, some poor people do benefit financially from government programs. But there’s a hidden cost: taxation and mandatory programs (Social Security, for instance) that hurt the needy by restricting their choices. Government taxes away income that low-income households could invest in improving their lives. At the same time, state-sponsored benefits create incentives that keep the poor trapped in poverty. Many assume that government barely taxes the poor, but the reality is otherwise. The poorest fifth of Americans pay 16 percent of their incomes in taxes (including federal,...

The story of Sleeping Beauty always struck me as a libertarian fable. The central plot demonstrates the impotence of government: Aurora is cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel, and her royal father issues a decree that all spinning wheels should be burned. But all the king’s action does is put some poor weavers out of work. Aurora still pricks her finger and falls into an enchanted sleep. The failure of government to achieve its ends, and the unintended consequences that stem from its reckless actions, have parallels today in everything from Keynesian stimulus to gun control. Maleficent,...

Many state governments run lotteries, claiming that this revenue-raising service is good for communities. But these programs advertise under false pretenses in order to exploit the poor. It’s time they were abolished. States currently use lotteries to bring in $68 billion per year in revenue, functioning essentially as a regressive tax. 61 percent of people in the lowest income quintile gambled in the past year, compared to 42 percent for the upper three quintiles. Poorer citizens tend to gamble more, even though they can least afford to. Gamblers in the lowest income quintile gambled over 150 percent more than those...

Most people in the United States have similar values. We want to care for our family. We want to be good neighbors. We have compassion and empathy and don’t seek out positions where we can control other people. Many police officers share these values. The problem is that the institution of government law enforcement as a whole, does not. First, law enforcement is inherently put into a position of power over ordinary citizens. They can pull drivers over and write tickets. They’re empowered to arrest people, and to decide if a law-breaker should go to jail or be let off. If...

A grand jury in Ferguson just failed to indict officer Darrell Wilson. In view of the historical record, this is—sadly—the expected outcome. Across the United States, bad police officers are routinely cleared of wrongdoing.